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Too poor to eat: 8.4 million struggling to afford to eat in the UK

A review of the new UN data by the Food Foundation and Oxford University shows that the number of people who are food insecure in the UK goes far beyond those using charitable food assistance such as food banks. These new data raise important questions for the Government:

Why is access to food not currently being regularly measured? Successive governments have failed to track this problem since it was last measured 10 years ago among low-income households over 2003-2005. Regular measurement of food insecurity with a big enough sample to identify those at greatest risk, could be achieved at a marginal cost of around than £50-£70,000 per year, by adding 10-15 questions to existing annual national surveys.

Why is the UK doing so badly in comparison with other EU countries? The UK needs to learn from other countries on the policy mix which can prevent food insecurity and monitor the effectiveness of existing policies; a policy mix which covers housing costs, planning, welfare benefits, school food, public health and the relative cost of healthy food. The full UN report can be found here You can read the food foundation blog here